Sharing #home on Instagram

Abstract

The term ‘home’ can mean many things. Indeed, the contested nature of the term has caused some scholars simply to dismiss it as useless. However, homes have an undeniable importance to our sense of self. They link us to current or past geographic locations that indicate national or cultural identities, allow us to display our taste and interests through consumer activity, and are places where we engage in leisure activities. Increasingly, we share the images we take in and of our homes widely with others, transcending the boundaries of the family photograph album. Through this study of images shared publicly on Instagram, we investigate the ways that people ‘visibilise’ their sense of home in order to share it with others. We can see through this data the interplays between public and private, domestic and commercial, that digital photography and applications like Instagram have brought to light.